As Roland was being taken farther and farther away from Eden through a wave of black worms, his body was taken over by Henry Clerval for a while just to call out with a voice full of desperation:
"Edmund!!!!"
He reached out and frantically flailed like a man trying to swim against the currents.
Roland gritted his teeth and felt a surge of anger even though he would have basically done the same thing. "There's no point! These stupid worms will never let us get back to him!"
Henry Clerval started to sniffle. "Edmund…. But I have just seen him again…."
"He's not Edmund." Roland snapped. "What you need to do is to calm the fuck down and let me think of a plan to save him."
This was one of the very rare circumstances that Roland cursed, and it was full of vitriol. He knew that having a hot head won't solve anything, but he just can't help it.
After everything that happened to him, he does have the right to be angry.
After what that man had done to his body….
Henry did stop using his eyes to cry. He asked softly. "What…. What are we supposed to do then, young lad? What must we do to save my dear Edmund?"
Roland closed his eyes, trying to push down all his turbulent thoughts and emotions. The moon gave everything a red glow, so he felt like he was literally seeing red. There's no point in dwelling in the past, especially since that past is dead and buried into the ice.
"Alejandro and the others are camping nearby. They're waiting for the signal." He remembered. "I'll go send it now, and hopefully, they'll see me and come to my aid. They had prepared flamethrowers after all."
"What is a flamethrower?" The Georgian era man asked.
That was what always bothered Roland, people calling the 18th century the 'Victorian era' when it's actually Georgian and 18th century doesn't mean 1800s, but 1700s—
He smacked himself. He needed to focus, his mind kept wandering off due to the high cortisol levels and the adrenaline pumping through his veins. He had already sent the signal, and estimated that it would take at least 15 seconds before the others could see them. They need to be spotted just in time before they become too far to be reached.
He had spotted Alejandro's shaved head, and felt immense relief. But it's not over. Seeing him being wrapped by the worms, Alejandro hesitated on whether to shoot fire or not.
"Do it!" Roland yellled. "Fire, Alejandro!"
The bodyguard then steeled his expression, and aimed his gun a bit off course from where Roland was. That way, he wouldn't accidentally burn his master. The flames burned the patch of snow and a bit of the ice.
The worms caught fire easily, and they changed direction to go and attack Alejandro. In this short time frame where he was distracted and injured, Roland had used all his strength to push off the worms around him and be released to fall into the soft snow.
He landed face first, breaking an arm but did not mind it. The pain was nothing compared to his determination to get Harker to safety.
"Contact the ship! The An Xin members are here, and Harker has been captured by Victoria!" He yelled.
The other members of the small group that was made to camp near Eden went on to follow his directions. They're going to send in their teams and fight with all these creatures.
Roland wished he could do more, but that would just be foolish. He had no weapon, and though he can defend himself with martial arts, attacking monsters was out of his repertoire.
So he placed Harker's safety into the hands of his followers and fate itself.
The best way he could help, however, was to gain information. That's what he does best.
Roland can see the four people that had been captured, tied up and gagged. One of which was Doctor Evan Sornione, who was the one he shapeshifted as by taking some of Harker's blood and his blood.
Because of this, he had also acquired a few of the Doctor's memories. Roland approached him, grabbing him by the collar.
He peeled off the masking tape on the Doctor's mouth roughly. "What exactly do you plan to do with Malum!? What does Victoria want with it!?"
"I-I don't know! I was just searching for it as she asked!"
"Liar! I saw you discussing to a few other scientists about taking the Malum yourself and running away!" Roland exclaimed. "If you didn't know what it does, why would you plan to do that in the first place!?"
"She didn't tell me anything besides that it's a very potent biological power source! That's why! That's all I know, I swear! I believed her because Eden's existence is virtually impossible, a miracle, even! Something like that would make me win a Noobel prize and mark my name in history forever."
ραпdα n?νa| сom While interrogating, the Doctor Sornione and the other two scientists were shaking in fear.
But Adam Fiero wasn't. He seemed to be looking at Roland pointedly, as if trying to gain his attention through his eyes and the psychic staring effect.
Roland finally moved his attention towards him, and ripped off the tape in his mouth.
"Speak. What is it?" Roland said, though he bears some skepticism over this man since he knows his background as a criminal and a troublemaker within Victoria's group.
"I don't know anything about this Malum business either. But I do know that you have 2 souls, don't you? I can see him, though he was much fainter than the other one that used to occupy you before." He said. "Why don't you ask him?"
Roland's eyes widened. This man could detect Henry Clerval's presence?
Adam scoffed. "And if we really are going to be involved in a war, can you untie us while you're at it? Or if you'd rather leave us to die, then be quick with it. I'd rather not see whatever chaos ensues in the Night of the Devil. The Evil Eye is upon us."
"What does he mean by that?" Roland asked, uncovering the mouths of the two women as well.
Since they don't seem to be able to cause any harm now and have no reason too, he did untie them. They may be enemies, but they don't deserve to die just from being involved with Victoria.
Mary Curry said: "We have no idea. Adam is a superstitious guy. When he r*ped that girl, he said he was just trying to take out the Seed of Evil out of her."
Adam scoffed again. "And it's true. The Seed of Evil is in her womb, and I need to get it out or she'll give birth to the Devil's spawn."
Petra Curry rolled her eyes. "Good thing that excuse never worked in court. Too bad it's just 10 years, even had a job with Victoria for 12 years as soon as he got out of prison. Lucky bastard."
"Can we please stop chit chatting and just get out of here already!?" Doctor Evan Sornione looked around fearfully. "I think I heard a howl just now….. And I have just seen the biggest pelican in my life."
"That's not a pelican, it's something much, much worse." Roland said. "Go ahead to find the rowboat on the ship. But if you guys try anything strange, we have more manpower to easily take on 4 people."
They nodded, and rushed out. But Adam turned around to give Roland a look.
Roland was just about to ask Henry about the when he noticed him through scopaesthesia again.
He raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"Your friend..."
Adam then shook his head. "The world is fated to die anyway the moment I failed to do my mission. The Devil's spawn was born. We are all doomed to the Darkness."
Roland was unsettled by this, but shook his head. 10 years in prison, 12 years working….. That incident was 22 years ago, then.
What an awful coincidence that was.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fre𝒆webnove(l).𝐜𝐨𝗺